Feed-in Tariff cuts hypocritical in light of Paris agreement

Posted on December 14th, 2015 by James Eades

On Saturday evening in Paris, 196 countries agreed a deal designed to limit global temperature rises to less than 2 degrees. This has sparked a strong reaction from UK industry about how the UK government has slashed support for renewables in recent months and how a complete policy change is needed at home, if we are not going to be seen as hypocritical abroad.

Later this week, energy and climate change secretary, Amber Rudd, is expected to confirm a 90% cut to the Feed-in Tariff subsidy for solar, here in the UK. Business leaders, academics and environmentalists all believe that this, along with a series of attacks on wind, other “clean” technologies since the general election have undermined Britain’s ability to meet new CO2 targets.

Carolyn Fairbairn, director-general of the Confederation of British Industry, the UK’s main employers’ organisation, demanded on Sunday that ministers take action at home as well as making their voice heard abroad. “The government must provide a stable environment that enables investment in cleaner, more affordable and more secure energy generation, including renewable technologies and new gas plants,” she said.

Craig Bennett, chief executive of Friends of the Earth agreed: “It will be outstanding hypocrisy for the government to trumpet the new climate change agreement unless it does a U-turn on energy policy.”

Meanwhile, the solar industry awaits an announcement which will strike at the heart of renewable energy business in the UK by removing the strong financial case for installing solar panels. Here at EnergyMyWay, our teams of installers are working all hours to ensure our customers will get their solar panels, and secure the Feed-in Tariff, before the cuts, which are expected to come into force around the end of February 2016.

By: James Eades

Operations Director, James Eades is EnergyMyWay's in-house expert on renewable energy policy, microgeneration technologies and best practice in the renewable energy industry.

Contact your nearest office for free advice or to arrange a no-obligation survey